Fred Gitelman has done more for bridge than just about anybody on the planet.  He's the programmer and founder of BridgeBase, the world's best free online bridge site.  He also did the programming for the Microsoft Gaming Zone Bridge Game.  He wrote the free Learn to Play Bridge software that all the cool kids rave about and sells other software to help people improve their game.  He's won lots of national and international titles with his regular partner, Brad Moss.  And he's a really nice guy. 

Now that I've got that out of the way, let's look at the hand I brought up from the last segment of the USBC.

All white in 3rd, Fred picked up

62 / KQ / KQT92 / AKT6

Uncontested auction (starting with Brad):

1 Spade - 2 Diamonds - 2 Hearts - 2NT - 3NT - 4NT

Rodwell led the 8 of Hearts and dummy tracked:

KJT98 / A976 / 6 / Q74

62 / KQ / KQT92 / AKT6

Fred started well, winning the Heart and hooking the Spade Jack, winning.  Now what?

Against 99% of opps, you're cold at this point.  As long as the Spade Queen is on your left, you can afford to pound out 2 Diamond tricks to go with your 2 Spades (after repeating the finesse later) 3 Hearts and 3 Clubs. 

If the Spade Queen is off, then you need the Diamond Jack onside.  If both are off, down you go, losing 2 tricks in each pointed suit.

Fred thought he could do better than that.  He decided that Meckstroth was perfectly capable of ducking the Spade Queen at trick 2, so he led a Club to his hand to repeat the finesse.  Rodwell popped Ace and continued hearts after Meckstroth pitched a Heart on the 2nd Spade.

After 5 tricks (established cards in bold):

KT9 / A7 / 6 / Q7

- / - / KQT92 / AT6

Fred's done good work so far from a tricks perspective (winning 4 of the first 5) but his communication is in tatters.  At trick 6, he established his 9th trick by playing a top Diamond.  Righty (Meckstroth) won and continued the attack on communications by playing a Club.

Fred won in Dummy (playing the Ten wouldn't have worked) and now he was at the final crossroads.

KT9 / A7 / - / 7

- / - / QT92 / AT

He can only afford to lose 1 of the last 6 tricks.  Luckily he has the highest card in every suit, so that just leaves him one trick short.  He knows that Lefty (Rodwell) has Qxx of Spades and no Hearts and Righty (Meckstroth) has no Spades and JT of Hearts, but the minor suit picture is cloudy. 

Fred cashed the Spade King and Meckstroth pitched a Diamond.  Fred cashed the Heart Ace and Rodwell pitched a Diamond.

T9 / 7 / - / 7

- / - / QT / AT

From here there are 3 possibilities for West's hand:

2-0-2-0

Successful line: Play a Spade and pitch a Club, endplaying West or just take the Club finesse through East.

2-0-1-1

Successful line: Play for 3-3 Clubs before or after exhausting endplay alternatives (that don't involve pitching clubs.)

2-0-0-2

Successful line: Play a Spade and pitch a Diamond.  This picks up 3-3 (or 1-1) clubs as well.  Playing a heart and pitching a club, then taking the Diamond finesse also works against this holding, but ONLY against this holding, so it's an inferior line.

(It's late, I'm going to flesh these out more later.  There's a little more to it than this.)

Gitelman eventually played a Club off the board.  He had misread the cards.  When Meckstroth showed out, he was down 1.  Reminds me of something I'd do (trying to guard against both finesses losing and going down when both finesses were winning all along.)

Rodwell:

AQ753 / 84 / 87 / J952

Meckstroth:

4 / JT532 / AJ543 / 83